NEWS

HOT CHOCOLATE FUNDRAISER

We are excited to announce the return of the Hot Chocolate fundraiser for Term 2. Every Friday from Week 3 until the end of term, students across the school can order a Hot Chocolate with marshmallows, to be delivered to their classrooms at lunch time. The cost is $3 and orders can be placed through the Lunch Online system prior to 9am on Friday morning. Unfortunately, we are not able to provide dairy or gluten free options due to the large numbers of orders we need to process in a very short time. The fundraiser will be run by Ponga students with all proceeds going towards their camp at Makahika in Term 4.

WELLBEING FOCUSED INITIATIVE

Our kura has opted into a new wellbeing focused initiative led by the Ministry of Education and Police across the Hutt Valley.

The purpose of the Programme is to notify schools in a timely manner when one of it's students has been affected by a family harm episode. The Ministry of Education will manage and monitor alerts from Police and send a notification to the enrolling school with no other detail other than the student's name. As a result of these notifications the school is aware that a child has experienced an event within the last 24 hours and is then better able to assist these student's through more appropriate and sensitive behaviour management, and the provision of additional supports when required.

This programme fits within our Child Protection policy requirements and supports a small number of selected staff to support tamariki who may require a little extra care. The school has created a process to ensure information is kept private and safely stored. Please speak to Shane Robinson if you have any questions about the process.

STAFF UPDATES

We have appointed Sarah Yaxley as a member of the support staff. Sarah is an experienced teacher aide who has previously worked at Kimi Ora School in a specialist role.

Talitha Le Roux will return to cover the maternity leave position for Kayleigh Maclean in Term 3. We are fortunate in the fact that Talitha has been working part time at Maungaraki over the past few years. 

SPARE CLOTHES

With the change of season please ensure you send your child to school with a change of clothes in their bag. We only hold a limited amount of spare clothes and cannot cater for all sizes. 

LOST PROPERTY

We are holding a large quantity of lost property which is about to get donated to a local charity. Please pop into the medical room if you are missing anything.